Swimmer's Daily

  • U.S. President Donald Trump has “done everything” to support the Los Angeles bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games, bid chief Casey Wasserman told reporters, including holding a lengthy phone call with Olympic chief Thomas Bach.

    Trump, the New York-based tycoon and former celebrity reality show host-turned politician, has been all the West Coast city could hope for, Wasserman said.

    “Donald Trump has done everything we could have asked to support our bid,” entertainment executive Wasserman told a small group of reporters at his seventh-floor offices in central London.

    “Every letter, every phone call … to President Bach… support of our bid generally … in my role, from what we need from the federal government, he’s been all I would hope for.”

    Wasserman did not reveal the details of Trump’s call to Bach, only to say it had lasted a good while.

    Read ESPN Des Moines

    https://youtu.be/MlrRRw0SbmE

  • Adolph Kiefer, 1936 Olympic swimming gold medalist and the oldest living U.S. Olympic champion, has died at the age of 98.

    Kiefer was a legendary backstroker, losing just twice in some 2,000 career races. He became the first man to break the one-minute mark in the 100-yard backstroke when he was just 16 years old, clocking a time of 59.8 seconds. He competed at the Olympic Games Berlin 1936 when he was 17, the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic Team, and won the 100-meter backstroke, setting a new Olympic record in each round of competition. The record he set in the final would stand for 20 years.

    “When we got to Germany, there were swastikas all over the place. Millions of them,” Kiefer told TeamUSA.org in 2014. “I remember the Germans drove us out to where they were making all their guns. They wanted everyone to know that Germany was big and strong. Anyway, one day Hitler came to the village where we were staying to take some pictures, and I was pretty well known over there because I was breaking records. We got introduced, through an interpreter of course. I’ve always said, I should’ve thrown him in the pool and drowned him. It would’ve saved everyone a lot of trouble.”

    During his career, Kiefer would go on to break 23 records in all, including every national and world backstroke record.

    There were no Olympics held in 1940 or 1944 due to World War II, and Kiefer served in the U.S. Navy. Reaching the rank of Lieutenant, he was charged with teaching the other men to swim. He introduced the “victory backstroke” as a means of doing so, which eventually led him to create an intensive learn-to-swim program in which sailors were required to receive 21 hours of water survival training. He was then transferred to the Physical Instructor’s School in Bainbridge, Maryland, where he oversaw the recruitment and training of over 13,000 naval swimming instructors. Those instructors would go on to teach more than two million recruits how to swim and survive a sinking ship.

    Swimming and saving lives would remain a central focus of Kiefer’s life even after the war ended. He established the company Adolf Kiefer & Associates in Chicago to serve the swimming and aquatic industries, developing products like non-turbulent racing lane lines and nylon racing suits. He worked extensively with USA Swimming as an official supplier to the team, with presidents on their Council for Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition as an advocate for swimming, and with Swim Across America, a non-profit that raises money for cancer research.

    Read Team USA

  • Allison Schmitt hates public speaking. But the Olympic swimmer shared her story of battling depression in a packed auditorium Thursday night as part of National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day.

    “I get sweaty hands; I feel like I’m going to throw up. I never want to speak in front of people,” said Schmitt, the eight-time Olympic medalist. “When it comes to mental health, I love it. A whole new me comes out. I think it’s because I’m so passionate about it. I can speak from the heart and I really want to spread the word that it’s OK not to be OK. I want to spread the message that it’s OK to ask for help.”

    See USA Today

    https://youtu.be/JyxxmEJQe14

  • Water quality is a health concern in all public pools, and although it won’t turn the water green, urine can pose hazards to swimmers’ health. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to detect in the chlorinated water of a huge pool.

    So how do you measure pee? Test for sweetness, University of Alberta chemists propose in research published this spring in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

    Using an artificial sweetener as a proxy, they discovered that all of the 31 public pools and hot tubs they tested contained urine.

    Read CNN

  • Underwater dolphin kick is extremely important for competitive swimming. After each turn or start you are allowed to do 15 meters of this really fast technique in freestyle, breaststroke or backstroke. This means that in a short course race you can swim most of the it underwater. Today we will talk about three really important aspects of this sometimes called “the fifth stroke”.

  • See bsf.no, live timing here.

  • A Brazil judge has sentenced eight men to up to 15 years for plotting a jihadist attack on the 2016 Rio Olympics. Authorities described the group as an “amateur” and downplayed any ties to the so-called “Islamic State.”

    Read Deutsche Welle (in English)

  • Yoga For Swimmers is a an excellent practice for the shoulders, the chest, the spine, the legs and your core. Perfect for anyone gearing up for summer! Connect mind and body so you can stay injury free, aligned and balanced.

  • Many people say the Isle of Skye is the most beautiful part of Scotland, and it’s also a wild swimmer’s wet dream! Here’s Calum’s top spots for Wild Swimming